His Uncle, Godly
by MandatoryFun
Summary: One was presumed dead, the other on the cusp of selling his soul to a demon. The boredom of a god ends up saving Ciel's soul and gains him a protective guardian. With no Sebastian this time, having instead the mysterious yet infinitely more powerful Outsider by his side, how will Ciel's life change? And how will he change the Outsider? (Pairings Undecided, possible Slash if any)
1. Chapter 1

**To be clear, I am NOT playing the Death of the Outsider dlc if he actually dies in it. No matter the story surrounding it, the Outsider to me is the single most interesting character in the series and to kill him...**

 **Anyways, the idea of Billie going after the Outsider though gave me this idea. What if the Outsider "dying" was just him faking his death? After all, he lives for what is interesting and after 4000 of intervening in the world, maybe he decided to take a break and go somewhere else for a few centuries. This story is born of that concept.**

 **NOTE:**

 **1) The Outsider is slightly OOC simply because I'm writing him a bit more human than in the first game. The developer has stated that their reason for the markedly different portrayal of the Outsider in Dishonored 2 is because they realized, in hindsight, they'd made the original Outsider more aloof and omnipotent feeling than they liked. He's meant to be personable, otherworldly, but still personable. So while the Outsider still monologues and overthinks things in a detached way, he will also act more human than he did in the original.**

 **2) I allude to the Outsider being pan ( though far more interested in men ) however it will NOT play a big role in this story. He will NOT be shipped with Ciel as the point of this story is to focus on how they develop a more familial relationship and what they go through together. As for the Outsider being pan, I chose that because, like I talk about in the story, if the Outsider does have a sexuality I'm pretty sure its just "who's interesting to me" as that's how he decides basically everything else in his life. As such, pan. Plus, as the Prince of Tyvia play you find everywhere and the letter between the two Overseers in the first game show, even if being gay/not-straight is taboo in the Church, its not a rare thing or big issue for the common folk.**

 **Sorry for the long A/N, just wanted to get this all out of the way before we start. With that, enjoy!**

* * *

 **His Uncle, Godly**

* * *

 **Chapter I: Your Life Has Taken Quite a Turn, Has't It?**

* * *

She had thought she had killed him. It amused the Outsider to no end that she, Billie, even after having lived through two coups that were fueled by his meddling in the affairs of the world, would think he was so…. Powerless? Easy to get rid of? He wasn't sure exactly what to call his resilience in this case, for it was not of his own volition by any means.

Did she not think that in the course of 4000 years he had not attempted to commit suicide somehow? He had been a mere boy when he had been thrown into the Void's embrace, not even of age and a starved street rat. All who listened to the Void's whispers eventually went insane much like Delilah had, and he was the chief sinner in that regard. He had not been in his right mind in thousands of years, even if he had learned to hide it. It was hard to fully enjoy oneself and the chaos wrought if you weren't at least nominally in the right mind when it happened.

So yes, he had tried to kill himself before, as surprising as it sounds. Immortality and losing your humanity was not as fun as it sounds. The only issue for him- or anyone for that matter -is that which is given to the Void never is left un-scarred, and the more complete the sacrifice, the less of what was truly you remained. He may be human in appearance, but he had long since lost his organs and blood, and any soul contained within, the things that one who was truly alive would have, and his original personality and moods had been twisted beyond recognition.

The Outsider could create the facsimile of what was human of course, he was the Void and the Void was him. To change his form to look like what a human should be like was little more than a thought and a bit of will. He'd done it before when he had seduced interesting followers when he was a younger god in hopes of having a somewhat normal human relationship for once as opposed to the insane cultists he usually attracted.

Young men and women … well woman, the Outsider thought with a shudder. He'd vowed to never try that little experiment in his still not understood sexuality again. Delilah was not the first witch he'd created, but he knew better this time to do anything more than watch her and her fights with Daud and Corvo. The Outsider wasn't sure who he would've been attracted to had he not been joined to the Void, but now attraction for him was admittedly more about how interesting you were. The one exception was that he refused to feel anything more than passing curiosity for women. Delilah was not the first to have taken advantage of him.

Besides, the young men of the world were so much more fun to tease, in an age when they were expected to marry young lasses and ladies.

Regardless, Bonnie's futile attempts to render him from the Void had left him with a purely brilliant moment of clarity- what better chance would he have to fake his death? What better chance would there be to leave the world alone for a few centuries, let it stew and then later come back and see what had happened. There were a million worlds the Void was connected to that he could visit in the meantime, and it would be far more interesting than continuing this game he played with Bonnie to its sad futile completion.

The only "problem" would be that he would have to take on a human guise and leave the Void for those few centuries, in case some fool stumbled into the Void while he was gone. He had made sure to bury the evidence of the rituals used by Delilah and Billie to both gain his power and "end" him so he was not too concerned about someone adding their essence to him like Delilah had.

Of course what was truly amusing was the fact that those spells really had no power over the Void anymore. Well, Delilah's did, which was why he made sure to destroy evidence of what she did . The last thing he needed was more people crowding his body. It was a good bit simpler to add a bit of yourself into the Void. But as for trying to control him or the Void and then trying to end him?

When he had been sacrificed the Void had no master or will. It was truly little more than a power source. However, those fool cultists, by fusing him to the Void itself, gave the Void a Voice, a Will, and a Hand with which to carry out its newly imagined and formed plans. He truly meant it when he said he was the Void. One could no more wrestle away control of the Void from him than they could destroy gravity or other laws of physics. Call it the Outsider's Law.

Now though, as he looked at the gates he formed to the worlds beyond his homeworld hesitance struck him. Not out of fear, but rather which to go? There were so many _interesting_ worlds at his fingertips, so many place he could head to and have his fun in while he waited for his homeworld to spiral out of control (for though many saw the Void as a force of chaos, it was the other side of the coin that was the Other World. Without its care, the Isles and the other continents would soon find their world much different than expected).

The Outsider considered what he planned to do. Going to a world and declaring himself a god, while exciting, would be far too obvious and would be too forward for his tastes. He'd spent millennia skulking in the shadows of the Other World and he was too used to that to do anything else yet.

He briefly turned his thoughts to what powers he would use. His signature teleporting was a must, and he had access to all of his followers abilities and then some, from Daud's Transversal, to Corvo's Possession, from Delilah's coven abilities, to his favorite Rat Boy's rat swarms. Indeed, he could do any one of those things and more- if he wished to live openly though, with little attention, he needed a place with people as eclectic as him.

Looking through the worlds the Void was connected to, his attentions landed on one where he could feel some sort of power radiating from. The Outsider could tell it was some sort of summoning ritual, and a supernatural being had been called forth. Well, no reason not to at least see what this world was like and if it would be a good fit.

He stepped through the portal, exiting in a room filled with blood and cultists. The scene caught in his throat. How familiar this was scenario was for him.

"Think carefully, for once you make the choice to reject the faith the gates of paradise will forever be closed to you." The Outsider looked at the crow curiously. That was a demon wasn't it. He'd forgotten how odd demons were. And, frankly, how annoying. The Outsider had killed the ones who'd intruded in his home dimension fairly early on.

They were a menace, like the rampant vermin the Outsider often gifted his followers control over. No matter how he warned them, these demons kept interfering with his interesting people. And that he couldn't allow. Besides, he still had a fondness for humans and to see them erased like that didn't sit right with him.

The crow demon was talking to a young boy, the one on the sacrificial table. Much like the Outsider thousand of years prior, this boy was being sacrificed for some reason, but this time it was about to backfire on his tormentors. The boy the demon was trying to eat looked at the being with scorn, "Do you think one of the faith would have summoned a being like you?"

"I'll ask one more time- do you wish to from a contract with me-?"

The Outsider decided to interfere at this moment, "Well if you ask me, I wouldn't." The two beings looked at him startled, neither having realized he was there. The Outsider walked over the feathers lying around, before teleporting to the boy's side.

He stopped time for a moment, taking the time to look over what his gift of foresight told him. He didn't have perfect prophecy and know what exactly humans would do, but he could see what possibilities the future held. From them, he could glean what had happened to someone in their past. This boy's last few months of captivity made the Outsider pause. To be so terribly treated at such a young age…. He re-started time.

"Hello, Ciel. Life has taken quite the turn for you, hasn't it? Parents dead, forced into slavery and bought like cattle. Branded by your tormentors- now here you are, on the cusp of changing the world, or at least your country, in big ways. In this moment you were destined to lose something- be it your life or your soul." The Outsider straightened, casting a cold glance at the demon.

"However, I do hate demons, so I decided to interfere with fate. Our souls are quite precious aren't they? I lost my humanity long ago and I can tell you its much less fun than you'd expect." Ciel was quietly staring at him in shock as the demon was glaring at him.

"I came to the boy first." The demon growled at him, his form seemingly shifting for half a second.

The Outsider barely spared him a glance. "Perhaps, but then he'd lose his soul. A sad fate for anyone, and so uninteresting. How better would it be to see how you react when given power over your fate," He said to Ciel now.

"What do you mean?" The boy demanded. "Are you not a demon?"

The Outsider chuckled, "I'm sorry, I never did introduce myself. I am the Outsider, and one does not need to sacrifice their souls' for power. Not if the power is freely given. Consider this a contract of entertainment- because watching how this plays out will be most interesting."

He paced around the prone boy, "And no, I am no demon, a worm of a being that predictably preys off humans like a parasite for millennia. I'm offering you a way out because I find you interesting- unlike him who sees you as food."

Ciel's eyes searched the Outsider's own; though his were only endless pits of darkness, it oddly seemed to comfort the boy more. That only piqued the Outsider's already large interest in the boy.

"I accept your offer Outsider! Take my pain and etch it into my soul - prove that I am alive!" The boy practically roared.

The demon was furious now at losing a contract for such a good (as in good for demons to eat) soul and transformed into his human form, attempting to rush the Outsider- the demon gasped as a burst of wind blasted him away from the god, throwing him into the wall. The Outsider scoffed at him, and waved his hand.

Ciel cried out in pain as his hand was branded with the Outsider's mark. The pain proved to be too much for the boy and he blacked out. Well, that was unexpected. Usually the people he branded at least stayed awake, though the boy was in no good condition for this so he supposed he shouldn't have been too surprised.

It appeared the Outsider was going to have to do this himself. He looked around at the cultists he'd frozen in time and rolled his eyes. The Outsider wasn't going to try and understand why they were doing this- while some would think it would be interesting, in the end there are so many reasons you may want to sacrifice a child..

It didn't matter. In the end, they weren't interesting, and he needed to get his…. Hm, what relationship should he have with the boy. He didn't want to be as aloof as he'd been in his other world- because honestly, he'd already been doing that for millennia, it wasn't as interesting as staying with the boy in some official role. Perhaps he'd be the boy's guardian?

Whatever he was to the boy, he needed his newest distraction alive still. Within moments, thousands of rats overran the entirety of the cultists' base, ripping and tearing at flesh. He usually was not a fan of the easy path of killing, but he knew that no version of these cultists future left them escaping alive. Either by his hand or the demons', they would die. This way at least he could deny the demon their souls.

The Outsider gathered the boy into his arms before giving the demon, who'd finally recovered, a cold and hateful look exchanged between the two, "Do not come near him. I will let you live this one time but I've killed thousands of you before- I can and will do it again."

With that, the Outsider walked into the Void to quickly "warp" himself and Ciel to somewhere he could recover.

* * *

It was a good while later, when the boy woke up with a start, screaming and thrashing. The Outsider looked at him curiously- what was wrong? He walked over to him and Ciel whimpered as if he couldn't see him but rather his tormentors, murmuring something along the lines of, "Don't touch me!" The Outsider was…. Sort of at a lost.

He was a four thousand year old being that had dwelt primarily in solitude in the Void. Human interaction was admittedly not his strong point, and comforting children even more so. It seemed so out of character.

He really needed to decide what he wanted to do in this world. He'd spent so long being a puppet master- or rather, an instigator, for making everything follow his will would be boring. But here he was with a boy who'd he'd promise to give the power to change his destiny. He'd already defended the boy from a demon at that.

The whole point of this was to do something he wasn't used to, to try something new and different, and in a way…. What better way to do that than to actually try and form a relationship beyond just delivering the occasional monologue?

The Outsider tried to remember _anything_ from his human life four millennia ago. He sat down next to the boy and called out to him, trying to draw him from the depths of his nightmares with his voice.

After a few stressful minutes of trying to do something, Ciel broke from his terror with a start. He was disoriented, obviously having fearfully thought he was trapped in his old cage. But when Ciel looked into his eyes, clarity suddenly entered the boy, "O-Outsider…."

With a grunt, Ciel tried to sit up only to stop and blush. The Outsider's head cocked to the side when he saw that. Why was the boy blushing- oh of course, The Outsider only had a blanket to cover him with. He supposed for humans being naked was an embarrassment.

"I am glad you are awake Ciel. You were trapped in that trauma- sad, but understandable for one in your position." He said, standing once again. Ciel shifted the blanket so it would more easily cover himself while he sat there and talked with the Outsider.

"W-Where are we?" Ciel asked, suddenly having gained awareness of the warped landscape of the world around him.

The Outsider hummed, "This is the Void, where I usually reside- another way to think of it is that you are in my true self. The form some humans deemed The Outsider is but a physical avatar I use to interact with the mortal plane. I am the Void and the Void is me."

Ciel suddenly looked like he wasn't sure if he should be uncomfortable or not. Being naked in a dimension that a god just said was an extension of himself would do that to a person. "I-I see. We will go back to my world though?"

"Of course. I merely was giving you a chance to recover here before we continue." The outsider shrugged.

"We?" The boy looked at him calculatingly, "You are joining me?"

The Outsider gave him a smile that he prayed to…. Well he supposed himself, wasn't creepy, "Of course. You have my attention and I desire to help you change your destiny- and it admittedly gets…. Lonely here, all by oneself." Really the word he would use is 'boring' but in a way, being bored and being lonely weren't that different from one another.

Ciel was surprised by this, and mulled it over. "Well you'll need a name. I cant just call you 'The Outsider' in my world," Ciel said with a smirk, as the idea was admittedly a bit funny.

The Outsider nodded, "Fair enough. But I have no name except that which has been given to me by humans. So, as the human I'm so interested in, what do you wish to call me?"

The boy thought for a moment, thinking, "Sebastian."

The Outsider inwardly winced. His ability of foresight let him see the possibilities the universe could (and in other dimensions did) go. Knowing that would've been the same name he would give the demon was annoying, but he could work with it.

"Perhaps something slightly different- how about Bastiaan? Its basically just a shortened version of that name." He suggested.

Ciel thought about it and nodded, "I like it. Now how are we going to explain your relationship to me? You cannot simply tell people you're a.. god that has deigned to follow me around." He snorted in amusement.

Bastiaan tilted his head, "Hm, you are rather clever. Or perhaps years without human interactions has dulled my ability to predict their responses more than I thought. Regardless, yes, hm…." Bastiaan considered what his options could be, "Tell me, was your father an only child?"

The boy across from him looked up in surprise, "Y-Yes? He was, why?"

"If your grandparents are dead as well, we could easily claim I am an uncle of yours, a child of the Phantomhive family that did not want to be part of the duties involved with the Phantomhive estate." Bastiaan explained thinking, "I then heard of the tragedy that had befallen my brother and I hurried to try and find my kidnapped nephew. Eventually I managed to find you and brought you back home."

Ciel was considering that, "Hm, that could work- wait…. What did you mean, home?" He asked curiously, "the manor was burning to the ground was it not?"

Bastiaan waved that aside, "I could always craft a section of the void to function as the interior of a house- a house that the average guest does not realize is bigger on the inside than the outside. Or, if you wanted, I could recreate your home for you."

The avatar of the void could see Ciel consider it before shaking his head slowly, "Though there are things I wish to recover from my home, it would pointless to try and create something that is gone. If I cling to the past like that…. My desire for selfish revenge and fear of death was what almost made me sell myself to a demon. Fostering such sentiments will do me no good"

Smiling, Bastiaan nodded, "I am impressed Ciel. You could have said you wanted your mansion back, clinging to something you could never recover. So many men have before you when thrown into this position. Putting it behind you may not change the past but it will let you evaluate yourself honestly. Besides, the Phantomhives did not end with your parents."

Ciel nodded, resolved not to recreate what he had lost to the fire, a bit more confident, "True. I have the duties of the family to carry out but- I can do more than that. I could make a company, I could become successful in my own right." The Boy declared proudly as Bastiaan smiled.

"You will need it as you lost quite a bit in the fire. Hopefully your parents were not foolish enough to store everything in one place." Bastiaan said solemnly, "Even if they didn't however, it may take time to recover everything; a business sounds like a wonderful way to retain your noble and monied status."

The boy was quiet. It was quite a lot to take in for any child. "I don't know if I will ever get the images out of my head. The guilt of surviving. The guilt of failing my parents and the children I was locked up with," Ciel murmured quietly, distracted.

Bastiaan moved over to Ciel and sat next to him. He knew he was of some comfort to the boy, his inhumanity somehow giving Ciel strength, "Rivers change course over many lifetimes, and eventually all bridges tumble down. Over that time, I find it strange how there's always a little more innocence left to lose. The road you've chosen won't be easy. But then again, how rare it is to find something that's truly good for you easily."

He looked at Ciel, who was watching him with wide eyes. He hummed before continuing, "Consider how easy it is to kill. When faced with men attempting to take your life, with men as cruel as the ones you've faced, how easy is it to simply kill them. You will have no sympathy for them, for the cruelty they've inflicted, the terror they've induced. You and many others could argue it was best for society."

"But," Bastiaan mused, "Consider how much harder it is to stick to the path of peace. To defend yourself, you must avoid a simple stab. Either knocking them out or through the cleverness of your words. One is easy and instinctive- the other requires conviction and determination. As a being that has seen the rise and fall of civilizations, I can tell you – the easy way is rarely the best thing for you."

"But they deserve it." Ciel said, confused and baffled. Was Bastiaan truly advocating mercy for abusers and murderers?

"If we were all held to what we deserve, you would not have been captured and tortured and they would've died for their other various crimes long ago," Bastiaan said with a shrug. "The world is not always fair nor a giver of what people deserve. But that is what allows humans to rise above their base nature. Allows them to be interesting."

A whale floating through the expanse almost distracted Ciel but his attention was soon riveted back on the god, "The idea of mercy is that Death is the worst punishment a man can endure, not because they are dead but because they can no longer seek salvation. A truly repentant man deserves the opportunity to turn from his sins, something Death does not allow. Killing is as much selfish as it is easy, for you deny them that opportunity. You place your opinion as the decider as to whether society can benefit from their existence- it sounds very selfish in those terms does it not?"

Ciel thought about what Bastiaan had said, eventually musing, "I don't agree that they shouldn't die for what they've done…. But I suppose I can see your point. Though I fear death, what I will endure over my life as a result of this could've been just as bad- I could've lost my soul. To no longer have the option to correct my mistakes, that is equally terrifying," Ciel said, the idea causing a shudder to run through him.

Bastiaan stood abruptly, "Indeed. Though while we can debate philosophy all we want, I believe we should clothe you. Then… well you have a better idea than me about that," He said, making his eyes turn into a normal human's eyes, a brilliant and striking blue.

Ciel stood up, carefully wrapped in his blanket to avoid exposure. He looked Bastiaan in the eyes before saying with complete seriousness and sincerity, "I like the other eyes better." As Ciel walked away, Bastiaan mentally was taken by surprise and left laughing.

Perhaps having a relationship with this boy would turn out much better than he had thought.

* * *

They ended up pilfering some more common clothes for Ciel instead of the super fancy threads he had been used to. A set of trousers, socks, shoes, and plain long-sleeved white shirt that had a couple buttons near the top with a vest over it. Bastiaan even found a newsie cap which he pulled over Ciel's head snugly, leaving the boy grumbling but accepting of the hat.

"I hope the commoner clothing is nothing too terrible for you Ciel." He said, double checking to make sure Ciel pulled it all on correctly. He knew the boy was unused to the ways of being a commoner, but it was a hurdle the boy would have to conquer.

"Tell me again why I must do this?" Ciel sighed, not entirely happy with the way the clothes fit him or the material they were made of.

Bastiaan smiled, "Besides the obvious fact that it is far less noticeable than living in a mansion? You are considered dead by your enemy most likely. Or at the very least out of their hair. Maintaining secrecy as long as possible is best in the long turn."

The two began walking down the street side by side; Ciel took his turn to speak, "We should get an apartment then. If you could then use your Void abilities to expand it we can use that as a base of operations." He proposed.

Bastiaan nodded, hands behind his back as he walked. "I will need to gather some staff in that case. People I can trust to keep our secret, both as protection but also for keeping the place tidy. I am no butler by any stretch of the term." He said somewhat sheepishly, some of his old human emotions being dragged up by living as a human.

Ciel smirked, "I suppose you are not. Perhaps we should have forced that demon to serve us." He laughed lightly, the sound musical despite the sad undertones.

"I would have been tempted to kill him every time I looked at him. I doubt I could have held myself back after so long," Bastiaan said with a small laugh, the action not something he was used to. When had he actually last laughed? Walking around as a human with this boy was affecting him more than he thought.

He took a moment to look through the alternate futures Ciel could've walked down and who his servants would've been. Bastiaan's eyes landed on one boy, whose hair had been shaved off and experimented on. This world certainly enjoyed its tragedies.

"I believe I know who your first servant will be. Shall we go pick them up?" Bastiaan spoke up and asked Ciel.

The boy nodded, making sure his hat was on as he smirked at the god, "Of course, _uncle_."

Bastiaan let out a bark of laughter and they disappeared.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, please review if you enjoyed it or have suggestions for this story!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I have a really long A/N at the end with footnotes for this chapter so I wont waste your time before hand! Please leave a review if you enjoy this- here we go!**

* * *

 **His Uncle, Godly**

* * *

 **Chapter II: There Are F** **orces In The World And Beyond The World**

* * *

Bastiaan smiled as he took a sip of tea, relaxing on the porch he'd made that looked out into the Void, the leviathan whales that were so in tune with the waters of his world passing by peaceably. He could hear the two boys giggling as they talked in the room behind him. It was odd, after four thousand years of never having been in a family to be so domestic.

But the Void-Being decided it just came with the territory. He'd be lying if he told anyone that he hadn't wanted kids of some sort at some point, to have that familial connection he'd lost at a fairly young age. Having Ciel around in his immortal existence was really doing him some good. Bastiaan had become fairly nihilistic as the centuries stretched into millennium. Even if there was more to the universe than just the Mortal Realm that was his home world and some universes had gods that ruled them, the Void was the world in-between. He was the only inhabitant of a place that truly was not supposed to exist.

That type of existence, existing as the avatar of something that just existed and had no rhyme or reason to it twisted his mind. The only joy he really found was in humans, who had proven to be able to give meaning to their lives unlike himself. But having Ciel around, a child that seemed to be less nihilistic with him around, was perplexing. They'd talked a little bit about that, after Bastiaan had asked him, confused and curious. The boy had admitted that the knowledge that there was a god out there, even if it wasn't the traditional God Ciel had heard of, and that Bastiaan cared about him was a comfort. Even if his existence had no purpose and wasn't planned, Ciel rested a little easier knowing there was a higher power out there watching them all.

Sometimes it felt like Ciel put too much trust in him. Bastiaan wasn't sure how to feel about it, as his human side filled him with thoughts of unworthiness. After all, he had kept himself separate from the world, maintaining a distance purely to fuel his entertainment and prevent boredom. He didn't try and fix the world or make it better for humanity because a perfect world would leave Bastiaan without entertainment. He was not a malevolent god by any means, but he was most definitely not benevolent. He did not go out of his way to help people unless they interested him.

It was odd, to feel unhappy with what someone thought of him. He had never felt this way before, or at least not in thousands of years. Even when his purest, or naivest depending on your point of view, follower in Corvo looked at him in suspicion and distrust he hadn't felt this way. Now though, whenever those fragile eyes, full of inner strength that was held together with thin string, a single scarlet thread Ciel had used to pull himself out of the abyss he had found himself in, looked at him Bastiaan felt like the boy behind those eyes had an opinion that mattered to Bastiaan.

It was baffling, but he supposed familial love was always in some way. You loved them just because they were related to you. Bastiaan had never understood why that was the case but now… maybe he understood a bit better.

Why Corvo was so adamant in resisting those how had stolen Young Lady Emily from him during their adventure together suddenly made so much more sense to the god.

It had been a few weeks sense he had rescued Ciel and then shortly thereafter had rescued Finny from where he was stranded after having escaped his captors. Though this world was not so evil to have infected this world with the zombie-like plague that had entered Dunwall and had ravaged it, it was crueler in some ways to people like Finny. A product of inhumane experimentations, the boy had been a bald mess of nerves when they'd found him. It had been at Bastiaan's suggestion that he join them not as a mere servant but rather as a pseudo-sibling for Ciel- a guardian for the boy when Bastiaan was not around, but also a brother of sorts.

Ciel had latched onto that idea rather fondly, a bit more fondly than Bastiaan had expected at the time, and had tried his hardest to build such a bond between them. Though it had taken a good week before Finny felt comfortable enough around them for Ciel's attempts at brotherly love not to scare the older boy, Ciel didn't give up and neither had Bastiaan, offering his counseling to the red-haired boy. It had gotten to the point where Bastiaan considered both of the boys his "sons" of sorts. Over the past couple of weeks, the two younger boys had become inseparable as they got used to living in a poor are of the city. They'd found one of the shoddy buildings they could live in, Bastiaan keeping the less experienced boys nearby as he weaved his way through the terrible conditions.

These apartments they passed were even worse than the slums back in his own world. While his world was very similar to this world in terms of technology and culture, somehow these apartments were built even cheaper with little consideration for safety or attractiveness. There was no plumbing or bathrooms in any of the apartments, much less flushing toilets or clean water. Instead, the people who lived here were forced to use public outhouses that were communally used by everyone that lived within the block. Ciel gagged more than once as sewage ran down the street since there was no underground sewage pipes to transport it away.

The apartment block they had ended up settling in at was in the Whitechapel area, in one of the cottages built in the area behind Numbers 26 and 27- the area was named Miller's Court after the man who owned 26 and 27. Bastiaan had talked to the man who owned the lands, Jack McCarthy. He seemed to own most of the slums, which made Ciel have some contempt for the man for letting these people live in such squalor.

Bastiaan later had to talk to the boy. He had stopped him, kneeling down to his level, and put his hands on the boys' shoulders, "You know the man is not at fault for such problems Ciel?"

Ciel huffed and glared a bit, "And how do you know that? He is sitting on awful properties and charging people for them!" He said distressed.

Sighing, Bastiaan nodded, "But consider Ciel- these homes are only four and tenpence. Now tell me, if these families could afford lodgings worth more than that, do you think they would not have taken them?" Ciel quieted down at that comment, mulling it over.

"But why would they not be able to- do they poor really get paid so little?" he said, in disbelief. Ciel never had lived as the poor did and it was shocking to the boy to find out that anyone lived on so little. Bastiaan nodded.

"They call this place the worst street in London Ciel for a reason," Bastiaan observed. "These people do not work the best jobs, nor do they have wealthy families to fall back on. They work what they can, unskilled labor or…. Well other jobs," He said, not sure whether or not Ciel knew what prostitution was yet. "Those jobs do not pay well in the slightest."

He'd led a baffled and distraught Ciel along with Finny to their new home- which lasted about two minutes before Bastiaan began constructing an altar that took up the majority of the single-roomed building. The boys had watched baffled as Bastiaan finished before he turned to Ciel and Finny and smirked, "Shall we enter?" Gasping, the two boys watched wide-eyed as a portal sucked in Bastiaan. Ciel looked at the symbol on his hand. Could he do that? Bastiaan sensed this and mentally gave him a push to do it as he willed the void to form a nice house, though it was more like a rich family's London summer-home as opposed to a mansion. Using Bastiaan's power, Ciel had brought himself and Finny to the Void through the Altar, the boys stumbling as they entered the foyer of the new house Bastiaan had made as the being watched with a smirk.

This was where the three had spent a majority of their time these past weeks- Bastiaan may have used his ability to teleport to go get supplies or things for the boys without having to carry the conspicuously valuable items back through Whitechapel. That's not to say he never walked through the poor area he had found himself in. More than once he wandered through the streets, watching, and coming to understand the world he lived in. He got to know his new landlord and their neighbors- one such woman was Mary Ann Cox, one of the many prostitutes who lived around in the area. In the weeks that would follow, two new people moved into the house near them- Joseph Barnett and Mary Kelly. They were amicable company, even if the woman got quite boisterous when drunk and started singing Irish tunes. When this happened Bastiaan would bid them a good night, leaving Joseph to suffer the woman's singing alone.

All in all, this new life he had adopted was good and Bastiaan was surprised by how content he felt living with the two boys as their guardian. It was a good change he decided, far better than any of the other plans he had begun to hatch in his head when he was the instigator back in his world. Back then, his time was spent scouring the world constantly for interesting people with which to entertain himself with. Now however, these two were all he needed to find life interesting. Perhaps he needed companionship a bit more than he usually let himself think.

The giggling inside the house behind him had stopped and the sounds of conversation had died down as well. Bastiaan glanced backwards to see Ciel standing in the doorway, staring out at the Void Bastiaan had been looking at. The boy still was not entirely accustomed to this world, even as he had lived there for weeks now. In some way, it was easy to forget you were living in another world- the house Bastiaan had conjured looked as real as the ones back in his world, and Bastiaan kept it supplied as if it wasn't in another dimension. So long as you didn't look out the windows it was easy to forget. Ciel looked at him now however, "Bastiaan? I was hoping I could talk to you about what happened to my parents," he murmured out.

Bastiaan nodded, a new chair warping in just out of Ciel's vision as he willed it, his hand gesturing to it for the young boy, "Well, pull up the chair and join me. What did you want to talk about specifically?" He asked as Ciel came over to him, shifting uneasily. He knew the boy was still recovering from the trauma of his parents' death and was still yet to be fully comfortable with what happened, let alone discussing what had happened to Ciel himself. Bastiaan knew what had happened and was fairly disgusted with the cultists. The immortal just counted himself lucky that Ciel needed to be "pure" for the sacrifice so none of them could force themselves onto the boy. That likely would've ruined what little stable psyche Ciel had left.

"I want to know who did this. You've mentioned in passing that you can see the future? Can you also look into the past?" Ciel questioned, more serious now than he had been in a while. Bastiaan leaned forward and considered what he was asking. He'd have to do a far bit of explaining how the Void worked for any of this to make sense. This Earth hadn't even had their Anton Sokolov, their literal Einstein in this case, to explain to some extent the intricacies of relativity or the world they lived in.

"First you need to understand how the Void works to understand how I can discern the future," Bastiaan started as he leaned back. "There are a few primary 'dimensions'- namely the three that make up three-dimensional space, and then time being the fourth. Some refer to this as spacetime. I won't get into the exact number of dimensions or what they all are- suffice to say that every possible world that could exist does exist."

Bastiaan leaned back forward, drink now set on the table next to him, "Now, one might wonder how these worlds are kept separate from each other- that is where the Void comes in. The Void is essentially a 'world' much like all the others, however it is malleable unlike the others. Think of your world as a metal such like iron while the Void is more like mercury. The other oddity is that it is made up of a special particle that gives the Void many unique properties."

"Now these particles are also what the walls between dimensions are made of- in essence, the Void is a world that melds with the walls of the worlds." Bastiaan explained, "Because every world is its own entity, they have a localized spacetime. While the Void does as well, the particles that energize it and that make up my own body are 'fifth dimensional' – meaning, primarily that they exist outside of space-time. It is this property that allows me to move my body to any point in space-time. My mind, being mostly human still, doesn't process it the way it happens."

The immortals head dipped, "So, for example, when I or those I gift 'stop-time' we are not actually stopping the time in that dimension. Instead it is how our human brains process the Upper-Dimensional particles lifting us and our bodies out of the Time Dimension and putting us in a fifth dimensional state. Moving forward and backward in time is an extension of this ability though my followers have never achieved that level of control over the Void."

"As for how I discern the future, I can do it by either manually moving myself along the timeline of the world I currently am in or by looking at other worlds through the Void. The only issue with moving myself along the world-timeline is that it doesn't work completely. Timelines are like a branch that gets pruned- there are millions upon millions of possible futures for a world but as time progresses in a world, choices are made. I can move past the present and into the future, but I cannot tell which version of the future will come to pass for it does not yet exist." Ciel was following along though just barely.

Bastian forged ahead, "So while I can tell you what is most likely to happen, I could not tell you exactly what will come to pass. Now I can look into the past and see what happened there, either by moving along the timeline or by being in the Void, like right now, as when you cross dimensions you must know both where and when you want to appear in the local space-time."

Ciel nodded, eyes narrowed in thought as he processed all this information on how the universe worked. "But… that means you can tell me who did this to me and my family?" Ciel asked hesitantly. Bastiaan considered his request, hand on his chin. He could easily just show Ciel but he was fairly certain that the traumatized boy was not ready yet to relive the murder of his family and then his own subsequent kidnapping.

"I can. But are you prepared to know the answer to that question?" He asked solemnly. It would be a turning point for the boy, upon finding out the truth. Ciel stilled- his eyes closed as he seemed to consider his answer for a moment. The boy nodded and Bastiaan dutifully supplied an answer, "I am against telling humans what lies in their future as it makes them predictable. But for you, well, it's only telling you your past no?" He smirked but sighing.

"The one you look for is a Fallen Angel. Unlike regular Angels who serve in the Heavens of your world and follow your God's will and decision to allow humans free-will, Fallen Angels wish to rewrite the memories of humans and brainwash them. They have no qualms about destroying those in their way, or that their favored wish to be destroyed." Bastiaan considered Ciel, whose eyes had widened in shock.

"A-A Fallen Angel?! Angels exist? G-God exists?" Ciel coughs, blue eyes startled. Bastiaan raised an eyebrow at his reaction. It may have been shocking but honestly, the boy almost contracted a demon, he shouldn't be this shocked.

"Indeed. You knew of the demon did you not? The religion of the God of this world is taught widely here and includes demons in their teachings," Bastiaan said a bit amused as Ciel gave him a grumpy look.

"Yes," Ciel pouted, "But there's a difference between something calling itself a demon existing and God actually existing. After all, you said you're basically a god so I figured….." Ciel trailed off.

Bastiaan realized his mistake. "Ah yes- well that would be because he's not a fifth-dimensional being by nature. Yahweh is a human that drew upon the power of the Void long before I existed. Though he never learned to join himself with the Void, it granted him great powers and nigh-immortality, as well as time bending powers like myself. He didn't create your world, but given as he is the most powerful user of Void energies in this world and the creator of Angels- which subsequently turn into Demons and Fallen Angels when their purpose is corrupted."

Ciel seemed to be dealing with this information a bit better, "S-so there is no hell? And he is not going to drag me there when I die?"

Well that wasn't what the immortal expected to be asked but shook his head, "Heaven and Hell exist but not as places for humans. Heaven is a planet in the universe circling a star he calls Hell. Heaven is a paradise he fashioned himself while Hell is where he tosses his creations that attempt to rebel against him. The Bible of your world is an odd application of his actual words reinterpreted to apply to humans instead of his Angels."

The boy was now calmed down and seemed very much relieved. Bastiaan was glad for that- he still was trying to figure out how to comfort the child's fragile psyche. Ciel hummed, "Well that is good to know. So, one of Yahweh's rogue creations killed my parents and still on the loose."

Bastiaan nodded, "Well, I know where this Angel is- they have chosen a rather high-profile role." Ciel's head shot up as he looked up at Bastiaan with eyes as large as saucers.

"You know where this Fallen Angel is?! Well what are waiting for then! Why haven't we gone after them?" Ciel said, suddenly standing and itching to go after the being that had murdered his parents. Bastiaan raised an eyebrow and waved him to sit down again.

"Because dearest Ciel. The Fallen Angel is serving as the Queen's butler and the Queen may very well have been part of this debacle. We have no idea who all was involved and I am not your errand boy to do the dirty work for you," Bastiaan said- Ciel flinched and Bastiaan's heart softened a bit. Maybe he was being a bit harsh. He leaned forward, looking Ciel in the eyes, his own flashing back to their pitch blank state. "I care for you Ciel, in a way I haven't for anyone in millennia. But you are still human. You must still learn to stand on your own two feet."

Ciel nodded, properly chastised for his attitude. Bastiaan stood however and put a hand on Ciel's shoulder, giving him a small smile, "Come. Let's go find Finny and together we can begin planning on how we plan on unweaving the web that the Fallen Angel has created."

* * *

 **Woo! Another chapter done! This one wasn't too bad to write but college has killed my time recently. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this! A few notes:**

 **1) They are living in a real place. Well maybe their specific place wasn't real, as I couldn't find anywhere that said how many houses were in Miller's Court. However, Miller's Court was a real set of buildings/rooms created in the confines of London's "worst street" of Dorset Alley in the Whitecastle area. I calculated how much it cost to rent a room in Miller's Court based on how much Mary Kelly (the last of Jack the Ripper's victims) owed at the time of her death, divided by how many weeks late the rent was. In the process, I had to learn the British pre-decimal system and do lots of research but it was really eye-opening to how accurate the Dickensian stories were to how bad conditions actually were there. And yes, I did mention Jack the Ripper- they're neighbors with one of the victims, so you can guess what arc is going to show up in the next couple chapters.**

 **2) We are now officially in the anime universe. I may bring in some more manga elements, but given as the Outsider would know who targeted the Phantomhive family, and I'm telling this story from his point of view, as well as making him sympathetic towards Ciel, I needed to define who killed the Phantomhives. And the manga still hasn't told us that, while the anime did diverge and gave us the Fallen Angels. This is also why I mention Yahweh and Angels. If it was only Shinigami and Demons, I could easily just say 'That's all folks!'. But with there being Fallen Angels, that implies there are regular Angels and God, so I had to talk about that.**

 **3) Now to preface, I didn't want to step on any religious toes in this chapter. I was raised as a Christian myself, but between the very odd supernatural "biblical" cast in Black Butler, as well as the Outsider himself I had to come up with something that explains how these are all connected and make sense. So, I pulled from secular theories as to where Yahweh/Israelites came from as well as the Dishonored mythos. Given as this story subscribes to the multiverse/many-worlds theory, this is simply a world where Yahweh is a human instead of a deity.**

 **Anyways! I hope you all liked it and once again, please review if you liked what you saw- it bolsters my spirits and if you have any ideas or critiques theyre often very helpful when writing future chapters. Until next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Alright everyone! Back with another chapter! I want to thank all the reviewers for their kind words and support! I did have one reviewer who did mention something:**

 _ **One Nitpick though, I thought the Outsiders human eyes were a sort of green brown colour, (just played through death of the outsider, and went mercy ending)**_

 **The short answer is I started this story before it had come out and I like blue eyes contrasting against black hair.**

 **If you dont want to read a long few paragraphs on my opinions on Dishonored and its most recent DLC then skip to the start of the chapter! ^-^**

 **The long answer is I started this story before it came out but I also haven't actually played the Death of the Outsider DLC since it did, mostly because I still basically plan on ignoring its existence. Part of it is because I have a slight crush on the Outsider (I mean especially Dishonored 2, he isn't bad looking in the slightest) but also because honestly? I think it is the Outsider that adds the most interesting elements to the Dishonored series.**

 **Almost all the chaotic elements, from the rat plague, whale oil, bloodflies and even the Abbey of the Everyman can be tied back to the Outsider and his influence. While the Void will still exist, the only way it will really impact the story is through people like the cultists who sank the Outsider into the Void or Delilah. The Void has no being or avatar that will drawn people into it or infuse its power into people.**

 **That's not to say the world of Dishonored isn't compelling in its own way aesthetically and intellectually- its just the Outsider that makes Dishonored truly Dishonored in my opinion. Many of these elements have been done before (they drew on the Thief series after all) and the art-style isn't completely unique (style-wise perhaps, but even in video games we've had retro/steampunk themes in games like Bioshock or Fallout). However, there is no one like the Outsider and the Dishonored world's interesting reactions to him (really, a church that preaches that the only god that exists is evil? Okay then, sure, why not).**

 **This is all just my humble opinion and it should be obvious that I am a bit of an Outsider-fanboy, but honestly, my favorite parts of the game were seeing how this fascinating other-worldly being viewed my actions and what his opinions on them were. The Outsider's odd mix of Nihilism and optimism, the coldness of being an immortal clashing with a desire to see men rise to be something better than they were, expecting to see the same thing he always sees but being pleasantly surprised when he doesn't- the Outsider is incredibly interesting and I could devour whole books written from his point of view on the events of the Dishonored world, or even our own.**

 **Anyways, that's my opinion and why I don't want to play the Death of the Outsider- I don't want his involvement to end (even though I don't expect another sequel nor want one honestly).**

 **Oh well, lets get onto the story!**

* * *

 **His Uncle, Godly**

* * *

 **Chapter III: Now These Forces Will Serve Your Will**

* * *

"We need to work on your powers Ciel," Bastiaan said calmly as Ciel sighed, running a young hand through his hair. "I know you want to chasing this Fallen Angel but you to consider the fact this is a Void-powered being. Unless you have another Void-powered being to deal with them, you'll be defenseless without using your powers. And while you are important to me, I cannot be everywhere at once. I am an Avatar- the physical embodiment of an all powerful force. So while I can see everything and be anywhere I want to be, I have to focus on it first. So if I am busy with something else it could slip my attention. I doubt it will happen, but I do like being prepared for the worst."

"I know, I know Uncle," Ciel sighed as he looked ta the mark on his hand, "Its just… its rather weird? And aren't I sort of cheating? Didn't you say all your previous marked followers would go find shrines and runes to gain more powers? Why am I not doing that again?"

Bastiaan cracked his neck as he rolled his shoulders, "Because no such shrines exist in your world. Neither are there runes or one charms as your world lacks the proper leviathans- whales that is -with the power infused in them to make proper conduits. Since I'm doing this through a physical relationship, we are doing this more like Daud's Assassins or Delilah's Witches. You receive my mark and through our bond, some of my power leaks down through you. This is essentially what every bond I gift is, but unlike Delilah's witches, who had a limit as to how much power they could receive based on how powerful Delilah is, you have no such limit as your bond goes directly to me, the Void itself."

Ciel looked over at Bastiaan curiously, "Will I ever get any bone charms? Even if I don't need runes to increase our bond, the Bone Charms from what you said give smaller minor abilities that aren't "powers" but are very helpful. How do those work exactly anyways?"

The immortal turned over the idea Ciel gave him with a hum, "I'll see what I could do. They should still work in your world- I just need some of my followers to make some and place them at a shrine so I can collect them." When Ciel asked his question about how exactly they worked Bastiaan nodded, "Theyre a bit different from your powers. When you tap into my powers directly, I have such a large amount of raw energy that you cant produce the more subtle effects that the Void can create. Maybe with time and practice- however the time it would take would likely consume your lifespan and others."

Bastiaan took a moment to scan the area he'd found for them to practice in. At the moment they were actually on the roof of the Clockwork Mansion of Jindosh- the Outsider had manipulated their time of arrival to be just after Emily had left with Sokolov. With the inhabitants of the mansion incapacitated and the next visitors to the mansion far away, this was the perfect place to test Ciel's abilities. He couldn't very well do it in the Void as being inside the source of his powers very well could mess with how his powers operate or manifest. Better safe than sorry for his first time.

The immortal went over to Ciel, crouching, "Now Ciel, every one of my followers gain some sort of movement power based on my own ability to teleport. You see that chimney over there?" he said, gesturing to one coming from the manion's roof. Ciel nodded and Bastiaan continued, "Now, close your eyes, imagine being next to it and let the Void flow through you. I want you to learn to do this by thought and imagination. Doing it by sight, while easier, limits your range and ability to manipulate your exact position when you move."

Ciel nodded obediently and the boy's eyes closed and scrunched up a bit as he concentrated. The Outsider was curious what the boy's Blink would look like. All followers gained a unique appearance to their Blink- Daud's was ash and Corvo's was a flash of light. He waited a few minutes, with no sounds except the wind blowing round him and Ciel form their position on top of the tall building.

Suddenly Ciel's Mark flared as he finally managed to tap into the Void's power, the raw energy rushing into the boy's body. In an instant, the boy disappeared by shattering, the pieces left behind in his old location quickly fading before new pieces reassembled at Ciel's new location. How interesting. This version wasn't an exact version of his own teleportation but it was one of the more powerful ones he'd he'd seen. Ciel hadn't gone anywhere near the full distance he could've gone- perhaps Bastiaan needed to give this lesson to all his followers. Maybe they'd be a bit more effective.

He clapped and Ciel looked back startled, eyes shooting open, a soft gasp escaping form his lips. "Th-That was-" The boy was floundering for words. Bastiaan's eyebrow raised as Ciel got his thoughts together, "I-It felt like nothing! Just one moment I felt the power flood me and the next you were clapping!"

Bastiaan smiled, "Then you did your first Blink very well. All Blinks work off the idea of being able to turn energy into matter and vice versa. "E equals M times C, squared", though that phrase likely means nothing to you," The immortal shrugged. "Suffice to say, as an infinite source and repository of energy, you essentially turn your entire body into pure energy, mixing it with the Void's power, and move it to your desired location in an instant by using the Void's special properties. Your soul then manipulates the energy back into matter and into your proper form."

Ciel was a bit taken back by this explanation about how the technique worked, "That um. That actually sounds rather dangerous doesn't it?" The younger boy seemed more than a little bit intimidated by his explanation. Bastiaan waved the concern away.

"You'd be surprised what the soul can do and what its naturally wired to do. It always looks for a physical state. This is partially why when my soul was fused into the Void I manifested as its Avatar as a physical being- the desire of the soul is to be physical in some way. Unless youre very young, there is almost zero chance of your soul not knowing what to do," He explained.

Ciel seemed a bit more at ease with this explanation. Bastiaan rolled his shoulders, "Well, time to practice. I'll make sure you don't run out of energy, but practice is the only way to improve your abilities," He said evenly. Corvo was a prodigy in the Void, not because he was especially powerful but rather because he had his powers for maybe a week before his mission was over and he had excellent handling on his more limited range of powers.

It would be interesting to see where Ciel fell in that range. Would he match Corvo's breakneck speed, or would he be more like Delilah, who took decades to perfect her arts and witchcraft.

The training was long and brutal and the sun was setting before Bastiaan stopped Ciel. The boy had made vast improvements to his Blink prowess, as well as had figured out how to summon a flock of ravens to him that would attack his enemies for him and (though Bastiaan did not tell him this) would devour the corpses of his enemies. Ciel had also begun unraveling a third ability; this one seemed to allow Ciel to sink things into other surfaces- he had first sunk part of his hand into the roof, before partially submerging a stray brick into the surface.

That technique was fascinating to the Outsider- he hadnt seen one quite like it yet from any of his followers. It would be both excellent as a way to sneak around and up on targets, as well as disposing of bodies or evidence. The best part was that Ciel was able to pull the brick back out, meaning he could store things in other things and then remove them when needed. It could possible be used to store some of Ciels more personal things as he got older, or hide his wealth even. And of course all the applications for taking out his foes of course.

Ciel was a sweaty and exhausted mess as they finished, sitting down on th roof panting as Bastiaan leaned against a chimney nearby, smiling at him, "You did very well today Ciel. To have already unlocked three powers, even if you don't fully understand them, all in a single afternoon," Bastiaan laughed a bit, "That truly is impressive. If you do this well in your combat training, your tutors will be suitably impressed." He gave Ciel a big smile and Ciel grinned back.

"When are you going to tell me who these tutors are anyways? You keep mentioning combat training but from the way you've talked… well youre not planning on training me," Ciel noted. And for good reason in Bastiaan's opinion. He was powerful yes, but that just meant he didn't need to fight in the usual way. His actual combat style, if he had to fight hand to hand in the way Corvo or Daud did, well. The results would not be pretty in all honesty.

"Once I convince them- it shouldn't be too hard," Bastiaan said quickly, seeing Ciel's doubtful look. "You'll be in the hall outside the room I summon them to in the Void and I'll introduce them to… you." Bastiaan noticed a note floating down in front of him. His eyebrows rose as he caught it.

His 'blood' froze. It was not often to get summonings from him. His eyes darted over to Ciel, who seemed to have picked up on a bit of his panic. "Its nothing Ciel. Head back to the house and freshen up. I'll be back soon." He waved his hand to send Ciel to the Void where their house was.

He hoped he'd be back soon at least. He turned and teleported away, landing in front of a building hidden in the back alleys of Morley, a club that was the secret meeting place for many nobles and groups who wished to conceal their activities from the greater empire. He entered, keeping his eyes human. It wouldn't do to be recognized in the Empire like this.

Bastiaan's ears picked up snippets of conversation- "What evidence is there of her being a Kaldwin?" "The Duke is simply pulling a power play!" "Lord Wyman, we can't just do nothing! Even if Lady Emily is alive as reports from Serkonos suggest, we can't hesitate!" "The exiled Princes of Tyvia have buried the hatchet with the Secretaries to resist the Usurper. This is unexpected good fortune in our alliance." -Bastiaan hadn't listened to these conversations before; they were as entertaining as he thought they would be. Rebellion was always oh so interesting.

Past the band playing live music in the corner, he could see the man sitting in one of the booths, nursing a glass of Tyvian wine. Bastiaan walked over and settled into the seat opposite of him, silent as he watched him cautiously. Lips stretched over brilliantly white teeth as the man opposite him savored the taste, "I always do forget how good some of the food of this world is. Have you ever had any?"

"In years past," Bastiaan answered evenly. "I am using the name Bastiaan now." The man scoffed, fingers adorned with rings tapping an incessant rhythm onto the table as his red irises bore into Bastiaan's blue.

"I am aware. I do my research when people begin pushing the boundaries of their authority. You do realize how close you were to breaking the rules." Bastiaan swallowed. One thing you learned very quickly as an immortal- you do not break the rules.

He nodded slowly, "I am. But it is within my rights to travel to any dimension connected to the Void. No dimensional walls were broken or twisted. I did no wrong." The man clicked his tongue in acknowledgment.

"You are correct. Which is why you are not experiencing what it is like to be destroyed on the sub-atomic level. I'm merely here to remind you that those are your limits- I do not want to find you within the jurisdiction of any of the other gods realms." The man leaned back and sighed, hand running through his black hair, "I have enough issues with containing the multiverse's various actual threats. I don't like to hurt my allies."

Bastiaan looked at the man in consideration. "Do you need my help? You don't usually have this much frustration with them. They are no match for you Overseer." The Overseer shrugged.

"Since I created my children and started training followers, no they haven't. But the number of different types of threats is increasing. The Entropy of the multiverse is rising as it ages, as per the law of entropy. Young dimensional clusters are still relatively safe, but some are almost overrun with Entropy." The Overseer rubbed a temple, "Just recently, I had to contain two Heartless Outbreaks, a Zerg Invasion, as well as the numerous inter-world-but-not-inter-dimensional travel events like the one you pulled."

The immortal bowed his head, "I apologize for the irritation," he said carefully, but the Overseer just waved it away with a sigh.

"Honestly it wasn't even a bother- how is Ciel doing?" The Overseer asked, a bit brighter. Bastiaan blinked, an eyebrow raising itself on his face, asking the unspoken question. "Oh, well, My…. Fiancé I suppose? Anyways, I'm in a relationship with an older version of Ciel- uses a different name -from a different dimension. I just like checking in on the different versions of him I find occasionally."

That made Bastiaan blink, "Youre dating?" He said surprised. He wasn't aware that his fellow immortals actually sustained relationships.

"Of course! He'd already attained immortality when he was turned into a demon against his will. I'd likely have given him immortality if he wasn't and had asked for it," The Overseer said offhandedly. "you should really think about settling down a bit. I'm assuming being a 'parent' of sorts has shown you that immortal life experienced with others is much less lonely than by yourself."

Bastiaan had noticed that. Though the last person he had thought he'd be getting life/dating advice from was the closest thing to God that Bastiaan had ever come across. "I did notice. But… Ciel will fade away with time, as will Finny." He said, suddenly, looking away.

The Overseer hummed, "Yes that is the crux of the issue, isn't it? And for you it may very well seem like the blink of an eye after all your years alive. Lord knows, I have suffered through my own trillions of years of suffering- but I find it funny how I can remember every moment I've spent with my own Ciel despite all that. He has lived less than a nanosecond compared to me- yet every moment with him I can recall with vivid detail."

"In some of the futures I see he dies within the year." Bastiaan said simply. The Overseer nodded musing. Bastiaan continued, "Others he lives to old age. But in almost all, he will die."

The Overseer gave him a knowing look, "But in some he does not. Think wisely about the path you tread and be sure he wishes to doom his soul to the eternity you suffer if you find yourself at that crossroad. " The other inhuman being looked at a metallic block with a glowing screen, "Ah, it appears my dearest apprentice has found the source of a rogue reading we were tracking. If you will excuse me, I need to go take care of this."

Bastiaan inclined his head, "I do not control you; it was … pleasant to talk to you." The overseer gave him a wry grin at that comment, knowing his position and power usually did not lead to the expectation of having a pleasant conversation.

"And the same to you, Outsider," he said as the cloth bandages that made up the man's scarf moved on their own, expanding and wrapping his body totally. The instant they completely covered his body, they collapsed into a heap on the seat, the Overseer gone without a trace as the scarf dissolved into nothingness.

With that, Bastiaan got up, mind swirling as he walked away from the club and walked back into the Void. He thought back on the Overseer's words. Perhaps the changes were good. The immortal hadn't realized he held doubts still about whether this new family he had made was a good thing- but the Overseer had seen right through him.

Well, the being had lived far longer than he himself had. He'd have to chalk it up through experience.

* * *

Neither of them had expected to ever end up in the Void again. They were standing in a fancy room of some type- the only indication that it was the Void at all was the large windows that make up one of the walls exposing the floating wall and floating islands and inverted gravity outside.

"Welcome back. We have so much work to do," a familiar voice said, drifting over from behind them, where a man with familiar inky black eyes stood grinning.

* * *

 **Okay! Time to talk plans! This chapter was a bit shorter as I was able to crank it out a bit faster than previous chapters. Hopefully I will be able to do more like this on a more frequent basis.**

 **I purposely left who the Outsider called in as tutors vague- mainly because I want to see what you all think it should be. I have an idea but if you all suggest something different that I like better I might go with that.**

 **I also took this chapter to flesh out my version of the multiverse they're operating in. By law and theory, the Outsider (or rather the Void) cannot be God and be the source of all things in the multiverse as humans can interact with it. Something like God would have to be a nth dimensional being that exists outside the multiverse. As the Void is a dimension in the multiverse, The Outsider cannot God by any means. The Void is connected to some worlds and those are just his dominion of sorts. However, there are other immortals with different sources of power that exist. The Overseer is the self-appointed guardian of the borders of the worlds, as to prevent these immortal beings from go to war with each other.**

 **I may include him and other immortals as the story progresses farther down- however, that wont be for a while as Ciel still has his own demons to fight. This was merely planting the seeds for the future. And yes, the Overseer is from the multiverse and is a type of being that comes from a fandom. I'm curious to see if anyone can guess what he's based off of.**

 **Anyways, I hope you liked it! Please leave a review for me with any and all criticism! Until next time!**


End file.
